Former Olympic swimmer Thorpe reveals he is gay

Five-time Olympic gold medal swimmer Ian Thorpe acknowledged in a television interview on Sunday that he is gay.

Thorpe told British talk show host Michael Parkinson on Australia's Channel 10 that he recently realized the truth about his sexual orientation after publicly denying it for years.

"I'm not straight," Thorpe said. "And this is only something that very recently -- we're talking in the past two weeks -- I've been comfortable telling the closest people around me exactly that."

Thorpe wrote in his 2012 autobiography, "This Is Me," that he is straight.

"For the record, I am not gay and all of my sexual experiences have been straight," he wrote at the time. "I'm attracted to women, I love children, and aspire to have a family one day."

Thorpe, 31, said he developed a defensiveness about the issue since he was a teenager when reporters began asking him about his sexual orientation.

"I felt the lie had become so big that I didn't want people to question my integrity," he said. "And a little bit of ego comes into this; I didn't want people to question ... have I lied about everything?"

Thorpe said he wishes that he had come out sooner.

"I'm comfortable saying I'm a gay man," he said. "And I don't want young people to feel the same way that I did. You can grow up, you can be comfortable and you can be gay."

Thorpe said he was afraid of letting down his family and fans.

"I wanted to make my family proud," he said. "I wanted to make my nation proud of me. And part of me didn't know if Australia wanted its champion to be gay. But I'm telling not only Australia, but I'm telling the world, that I am."

Thorpe retired from swimming in 2012 after winning five Olympic gold medals, three silvers, and one bronze, and setting 22 world records.

Known as the "Thorpedo," he was only 14 when he first represented Australia in 1998 and became the youngest swimmer to win a world championship when he took first in the 400-meter freestyle at the 1998 worlds in Perth.

Thorpe won three gold and two silver medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He retired after the 2004 Athens Olympics before making an unsuccessful comeback when he failed to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.